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So there are a bunch of huge numbers rolling out about Pinterest—the latest of which show that the service has 10.4 million registered users, 9 million monthly Facebook connected users, and 2 million Facebook users, according to Inside Network's AppData tracking service.

And if Pinterest is going to be as huge as many people think it will be, it will be fun to watch a few things happen:

We will change the way we think about image ownership. It will be less about where people put our photos ("Why did that person put my photo on that website?") and more about how photos track back to the properties that we control ("Why did that person not put a link back?"). We've seen such trends with Tumblr, Posterous, and others, but the speed with which we share photos will quicken.

Media companies will want, even more, to control the full rights to the photos they use. Even more than before, photos are quickly going to become powerful marketing content, and companies who care about social media users will want the ability to fluidly deciminate branded images through web. Many corporations are already starting to get the efficacy of visual storytelling tools—infographics, for instance, are an incredible way to help people understand what you do. But the popularity of photo sharing services will encourage companies even more, to share stories in images.

Watermark services will multiply and refine. Pinterest is fun now, but people are quickly going to become peeved about folks using photos without credit. And as a result, people will be looking for a quick and easy way to stylishly lay claim to their photos. Think Instagram for watermarks.

It will be interesting to watch how Pinterest will navigate image sharing and rights. (Side note: There was a great article earlier this week about managing copyrights on Pinterest.)

So now here's my question: Anyone found a watermarking app they like? There are a couple I want to try (It's My Photo AD, iWatermark, and Impression), but I'm not sure how good they are.

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5 responses

Let me get back to you on that.

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Ernie Cordell

For some reason, I really don't like watermarking. The watermark is either too small, or too large. The former is easily cropped, and the latter ruins the image.

Invisible watermarking, where the watermark is embedded within the file, would be the next logical step, but I believe there few solutions on the market (patents?). But embedded watermarks are one step away from DRM, which we all seem so keen to get rid of.

Now, I'm off to investigate Pintrest to see what all the fuss is about.

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Bill Glover

Thanks, Ernie! :-)

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Noelle Chun

Bill, I totally hear you about watermarking. As it is today, it can really look ugly, can't it? I wonder if there will become more conventions to make a watermark more a part of the visual experience. If Pinterest is as popular as people claim, people will be looking quickly for solutions with what we have. Any findings in your investigation of Pinterest? :-)